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If there's one lesson we've clearly learned about Apple, it's that Cupertino gets what Cupertino wants. And what Cupertino wants at present is a smorgasbord of websites, mobile applications, and other digital content suppliers to crank out new flash-free offerings optimized for the iPad.

Apparently, Apple's wish is everyone else's command. Despite the consistent barbs from critics, Apple is successfully changing the way many websites would have otherwise functioned with Flash for the sake of capturing a chunk of the tablet's presumably large forthcoming audience.

Today, the world learned that both National Public Radio and The Wall Street Journal are also bucking large chunks of their Flash content and, instead, now working on iPad-specific versions of their websites.

NPR and the WSJ are in good company. As we recently witnessed, a growing number of companies - not even those confined to the publishing or broadcasting industries - are changing how they do business in order to accommodate how Apple is doing business. Virgin America recently endeared itself to iPhone users by removing all Flash content that would have impeded travelers from checking their flight status on the popular Apple smartphone.

While its premature to estimate if Apple's no-Flash posturing will do irreparable damage to Adobe, it is clear at present that companies want - and need - Apple. And if Apple goes without Flash, it seems so too will others - many others.